George Smith: It’s another good year for pancakes

THE FINAL report on the Kiwanis Club’s annual Pancake Day are in and it was another good year. Held back in March, this one raised $47,736 and will be used to purchase back-to-school supplies for needy kids in our town.

It is one of the very best charitable deals around. Truth is, I can think of no finer cause in our area.

“We came in a few hundred dollars over last year,” says Kiwanian Bill Hagler, “but not as good as our record year. That was $49,208 in 2012.

“We fed over three thousand people. Multiply that by three pancakes and two sausage patties to each plate and that comes to a whole lot of cooking.

“We enjoy smiles and happiness twice,” adds Hagler Once when everybody comes to eat pancakes, the second when the children come to shop. It is a part of togetherness we feel as a community.”

If you didn’t already know, everything the Kiwanians do is wrapped around the kids. The Kiwanis Clubs also provide scholarships and sponsor Kiwanis youth groups in our schools from elementary to college.

The back-to-school shopping day is set for Aug.10.

So, our Kiwanians can take a bow and so can all of you who turned out in support of kids ’n pancakes.

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QUOTABLE:"You're not supposed to understand country music until you've made your first refrigerator payment."— Tom T. Hall

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TOM T. is one of my favorites, but I understood country music from my fourth year when we’d gather around a big old Silvertone Radio at my grandfather’s house in Pleasant Ridge.

The reason I know that is hearing Roy Acuff sing “Don’t Make Me Go to Bed and I’ll be good” still haunts me after all these years.

One other thing.

Several years back, the blonde and I along with three other couples, sat in a hotel room in Nashville, Tenn., into the wee hours listening to him explain the inspiration for each of his songs ... and then sing it.

It is one of those soft memories I mention from time to time. Tom T’s “Old Dogs and Children and Watermelon Wine”is a classic, especially when he’s doing it just for you while smoking cigarettes and knocking down Jack Daniel.

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IF YOU’VE been paying attention you know the Veterans Administration’s medical efforts are a mess.

So, let me give you some good stuff, namely the local DAV Van Transportation program which daily transports veterans to the VA hospital in Birmingham

Since June 1977, the local program headed by Paul Brouillette has transported 22,000 veterans to the hospital.

During that time, the local DAV has managed to use up just three vans. The drivers are local and eight of the nine volunteer drivers are veterans.

In addition to leaving from the Oxford clinic each weekday morning at 6:30, if room is available, veterans can also catch the van at the Eastaboga, Riverside, Alabama 77, and Eden exits on I-20.